


And I am (silent)

by Violettavonviolet



Series: silent pains [1]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, BAMF Stephen Strange, Bruce Banner & Tony Stark Friendship, Deaf Clint Barton, Gen, Hurt Tony Stark, Like really stupid, M/M, Mute Tony Stark, Muteness, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Stephen Strange is a Good Bro, The concept of soulmates is messed up, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Unrequited Love, What about people with a disability?, but not really?, deep dive into soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:48:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22846651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Violettavonviolet/pseuds/Violettavonviolet
Summary: Tony had been thinking again, thinking about his soulmate.The thought was bitter sweet as always.When he was younger, he had loved the idea of a person destined to love you, but nowadays all it was, was another reminder of his disability.
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Tony Stark, Jarvis (Iron Man movies) & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Tony Stark/Stephen Strange
Series: silent pains [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1648831
Comments: 13
Kudos: 132





	And I am (silent)

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, I'm back again! This time with a mute Tony because I love it. Sooo, I've read a few soulmate fanfics, actually who ami kidding, I've read upwards of four hundred soulmate fanfics I think, and it kind of made me think. The most popular trope, is first words, right? But what about people, that can't talk, or people who are deaf? What happens if you can't hear the first words of your soulmate? So that's what this is, my interpretation of the loopholes of the trope. Hope you like it!

Tony had been thinking again, thinking about his soulmate.  
The thought was bitter sweet as always.  
When he was younger, he had loved the idea of a person destined to love you, but nowadays all it was, was another reminder of his disability. 

He had always thought that the concept of the first words to one another on the wrist was rather stupid, what if somebody somehow knew about your words beforehand and faked it?  
But now it was downright cruel. He had never spent a thought on the people that couldn’t talk, or hear, those who would never know who their soulmate was, but now it was all he thought about.  
It had been an accident, he had barely been 23 at the time, but it impacted his life forever. 

The incident that changed his life. 

Some intern had calculated a formula wrong and the experiment had exploded.  
He had been right in front of it at the time. 

The explosion rendered him mute, a few small shards cutting open his throat and destroying his vocal cords in the progress. He was lucky that he was even alive.  
If he wasn’t an alcoholic before he certainly was one afterwards.  
The following month after he had been released from medical, without any hope of a full recovery, he spent programming Jarvis. 

The AI was an assistant for sure, but his main task was imitating his voice.  
It worked, he had been recorded often enough that it wasn’t a problem to piece together his voice, he perfected it with time.  
He missed the talking but lucky for him, nobody noticed anything, at least the press didn’t catch wind of it. 

Anyway, after that, the concept of soulmates seemed stupid, there were too many loopholes in the concept and it seemed like discrimination to many different groups.  
The words on his own wrist were nice, but it made him sad to think that the other person, probably a guy, had none. 

Over the years many people would get to know his secret, it was simply not possible to live with super spy’s and soldiers without them noticing that he would use the same phrases over and over or something similar.  
They handled it pretty well, especially because Clint was, as it turned out, partly deaf.  
They had a lot of conversations in sign language if he needed to use words he couldn’t copy from before his muteness. 

Back to soulmates, he had apparently just met his own after giving up his search for them about a lifetime ago, when he had still been the merchant of death and not Ironman.  
It was fitting really, an arrogant wizard doctor with shaking hands as his soulmate, and he could see how in another lifetime they could’ve been a pair but now, he thought it was ridiculous. 

And obviously, the wizard hadn’t realized their connection, how could he?  
He couldn’t have any words on his hand.  
Bruce certainly had, they had had long conversations about soulmateship before he had disappeared.  
Bruce had found his soulmate in Hulk which was in itself rather interesting as it suggested that their body was inhabited by two different souls and the hulk wasn’t just a mutation. It had been heartbreaking for Bruce who had lost all hope of a normal life, but he eventually had to accept things as they were. 

Luckily Bruce didn’t comment on it and the wizard was left unknowing, he wouldn’t want this to be their first official meeting.  
He had known Stephen for decades every so often checking on him until a few years ago when he had finally stopped hoping.  
He knew who it was, as Stephen was friendly enough to mention his name in the first sentence.  
Still, even if he might tell Stephen the soulmate thing later, he wouldn’t now.  
The universe was more important than his small romance. 

So he followed Stephen and everything went fine, then of course Spider-Man has to sneak onto the ship with them and all of those feelings cane up again.  
After that everything happened so fast and suddenly they were on this alien planet fighting Thanos and losing. 

His hands were shaking, his whole body was.  
He had never thought it would come to this, that they would lose, could lose. He had been so naive, so full of hope but he was vastly realizing that his assumptions had been wrong. Standing there, looking into the face of pure terror everyone around him dissolving into dust, it finally settled in. They had lost, truly lost. Peter was dying in his arms, only dust on the ground staying behind.  
He wanted to scream and shout but as always, no sound would come out. He cried, silently waiting for his turn to dust but nothing ever happened.  
Everyone dies, but him and an alien lady he knew nothing about.  
His soulmate was dust and he hadn’t even known that Tony was his. His chance of a soulmate was gone, as was the son he had in all but blood. He entered the ship, wishing that he would just die instead, but he didn’t. 

He never did. 

The oxygen was finally gone, so was the food and even then he wasn’t allowed to rest. 

He came back to earth and didn’t know what to do, he knew that the others were judging him, it seemed like he hadn’t lost anyone.  
He didn’t tell them about Stephen or Peter, choosing a life in solitude instead.  
When they approached him with the idea of fixing everything a good five years later, he wanted to laugh, but there was no sound, there never was.  
He worked on their idea, of course he did, as if he would stop for a second chance of a soulmate, bud deep down he knew it wouldn’t go well. 

He was too bad for that.  
His method worked, obviously, there had never been something that he couldn’t build. 

It worked so well, and if he could, Tony would have screamed in happiness when he saw Stephen and Peter back from the dead, but it couldn’t last. 

He had no time to tell Stephen that he was his soulmate, before he died.  
He knew in the seconds before he did, that a soulmate really wasn't for him. He would never get that happy fairytale ending he dreamed of when he was younger, and he understood that, accepted it. 

At least now his soulmate could live in freedom. 

He died smiling, welcoming the peace with open arms.

**Author's Note:**

> This is it!  
> What do you think?  
> Any additional thoughts on the trope, or my story? Leave a comment down below, reading those always makes my day! I don't know if I'm gonna post something tomorrow, but if I don't stay tuned for next Friday, a new fic is coming then!  
> Bye  
> Vio


End file.
